 AI and employment in EuropeDario Guarascio and Jelena Reljic Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 247, issue C Abstract: This paper contributes to the growing research on AI's labour market impact by presenting novel evidence on the heterogeneous employment effects of AI across EU countries from 2012 to 2022. While concerns persist about AI's disruptive potential, our findings show that occupations more exposed to AI technologies experience stronger employment growth, all else being equal. However, these effects are not uniform across the EU. Positive employment outcomes are concentrated in Innovation Leaders (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden) and Strong Innovators (Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland and Luxembourg), emphasising the context-dependent nature of AI's impact. These findings reflect the uneven distribution of innovation capabilities, with a country's innovation system and ‘absorptive capacity’ playing a crucial role in fully harnessing AI's potential for employment (and economic) growth. Ultimately, this research challenges the notion of AI as universally beneficial or harmful, highlighting its asymmetric effects across countries and occupations. Keywords: AI; Employment; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:247:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000205 DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112183 Access Statistics for this article Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier |
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